Market for Martian Meteorites Heats Up

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No mission to Mars has ever brought back rocks, but pieces of the
Red Planet have turned up on Earth.

In late May, a Mars rock, small enough to fit easily into in an
adult’s palm and covered in a glossy crust as black as space,
sold for $43,750, a significant price, even for a piece of the
fourth planet.

"It should be stated that Mars is among the rarest things on
Earth," said Darryl Pitt, the dealer who sold this specimen at
auction. [ Latest
Mars Photos ]

This rock was a piece of the Tissint meteorite, which appeared as
a fireball in the sky over the desert southwest of Tissint,
Morocco, on July 18, 2011. Local people discovered the pieces of
the Tissint meteorite in November, and a team of experts
classified it,
making the discovery official in January.

Tony Irving, a meteoriticist at the University of Washington,
estimates the Tissint meteorite brought at least 33 pounds (15
kilograms) of Mars rock to Earth.

"It is going to be very hard to get an accurate tally because so
many people have gotten involved," Irving said.

After its discovery, pieces of the Tissint entered a growing
commercial market for meteorites. Demand, and prices, for
meteorites increased dramatically as a result of publicity
surrounding the first public auctions offering meteorites in the
late 1990s, according to Pitt. The demand has, in turn, motivated
meteorite hunters to find more of them.

Now a year after it fell, Tissint pieces have been snapped up by
collectors and institutions, but some of it is still up for sale.

Pitt estimates about 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) are still on the
market, including the largest chunk or "main mass" that weighs
2.8 pounds (1.3 kg), for which he is seeking a buyer. Pitt also plans
to sell another, smaller fragment at a meteorites-only auction
offered by Heritage Auctions in October.

A natural history favorite

This smaller fragment, a 1.6-ounce (46-gram) coal-colored rock,
was among a selection of meteorites that Heritage Auction offered
for sale on May 20. Its company included a small slice of giant
iron meteorite discovered in 1902 in Willamette, Ore., that is on
display at the American Museum of Natural History; slices of
meteorites from the moon ; and pieces of pallasite meteorites
dotted with the gem peridot, the August birthstone.

At a media preview before the May 20 auction, the museum's
director, David Herskowitz, showed off the meteorites.

"For everyone who has every worldly possession, he can actually
own something from out of this world," Herskowitz said.
"Meteorites are the most popular, the most highly collectible of
all natural history [items]. There are more people that collect
meteorites than there are that collect fossils, dinosaurs, even
minerals." [ Up
For Auction: A Natural History Gallery ]

Meteoritic miracles

A meteorite is a chunk of stone or metal from space that lands on
the planet's surface. Most meteorites originate from the asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter, when collisions fling out bits
of asteroid, which eventually find their way into Earth's
gravitational field

These must then survive the journey through Earth's atmosphere
before striking the ground. If humanity is ever to recover them,
the meteorites must land somewhere they can be found.

"I find almost every meteorite fall miraculous," said Geoffrey
Notkin, a writer, meteorite dealer and host of the Science
Channel's "Meteorite Men."

Meteorites ejected from the moon and Mars by asteroid collisions
are rarer. About 65 Martian meteorites, including Tissint, have
been recovered, Irving estimates.

Collectors are interested in more than just a meteorite's origin,
Notkin said. For instance, beautiful specimens — think of
sparkling specks of yellow peridot gems or the way iron
meteorites resemble abstract sculptures — fetch higher prices, as
do those with back stories, such a history that includes being
traded out of a famous museum collection. Over time, meteorite
prices have been increasing, partly due to inflation, partly due
to increased interest, Notkin said.

The nearly $1,000 per gram cost of the Tissint specimen sold on
May 20 is fairly typical for a high-quality Martian meteorite, he
said.

The commercial meteorite market isn't limited to the meteorites
themselves. Items struck by meteorites — a Chevy Malibu and a
mailbox, for instance, have also sold for handsome prices.

A Martian origin

While missions to the moon have returned with lunar rocks, no
Mars rocks have been brought back. So, why do scientists think
meteorites like Tissint came from Mars?

In roughly 10 of the Martian meteorites, researchers have studied
the composition of pockets of gas trapped in veins of melted rock
formed by the shock of the ejection, and matched it to the
composition of the Martian atmosphere. The remaining Martian
meteorites have chemical features similar to those found to
contain gas matching Mars' air.

Tissint appears to be one of a group of Martian meteorites,
approximately 10 in all, that likely have been ejected from Mars
1.1 million years ago. All, however, have arrived on Earth at
different times, the first landing 400,000 years ago.

Discoveries of meteorites, including those from Mars, are
increasing; well over half of Martian meteorites have turned up
since 2000.

Meteorites
are most easily found in deserts, both icy and rocky ones.
Expeditions to Antarctica have contributed to the increase in
finds, as has the emergence of a meteorite-prospecting enterprise
in northwestern Africa, including Morocco, where nomads and
others search the desert for valuable rocks.

"It must be concluded that future discoveries elsewhere are
limited mainly by insufficient effort. Let's get going!" Irving
writes
on his website.